Introduction

Information controls the Earth today – extinct cultures, destroys civilizations, languages. Human life has been around for 4 million years. It didn’t even take 1 million years until we discovered agriculture. Agriculture ® Industrial Revolution

        HOMINIDS 4 million years ago 

        Agriculture Revolution

        Industrial Revolution

        Information Revolution

Communication has been the greatest barrier in the world.  Information is knowledge. The ability to communicate is the source of all knowledge.

        Information doesn’t just move back and forth.

        Reality can be determined and defined by information.

        Businesses drive communications market because of this.

A Virtual Revolution is more likely to take over reality. There are technologies now to advance life like a fantasy.

Carl Sagan, Broca’s Brain

Critical Thinking Characteristics

A critical thinker is characterized by his/her proficiency in the following operations by judging whether or not:

...a conclusion follows its premises

                                "Is" has many meanings.

                                "Love" has many meanings.

                        THREE TYPES OF LOVE:

1. Passionate love. (Eros)
2. Love, as in you love something far beneath you. (dog)
3. Love with your family, your mistress, etc

Most assumptions are created artificially. Some assumptions are cultural.

Logic must be rigorous.

EX: "All men are created equal." What about women?

...an observation or statement is reliable

...a generalization is warranted

...a hypothesis is warranted

...a theory is warranted

...an argument depends on an ambiguity

...a statement is over-vague or over-specific

...a alleged authority is reliable

...something is a value judgment. Does/does not rely on critical thinking

If all our opinions were fact, it would be a dull world

Bloom's Hierarchy of Cognitive Skills

Bloom was a psychologist who studied metacognition.

These are the six categories of types of thought. He gathered all types of thought from the simplest to the most complex. You can’t restate, until you recall. Get something in the exact same form given to you.

1. RECALL – A repeat of something as it was given to you.
2. RESTATE – Rephrase.
3. APPLY – Show how that idea relates/explains to other phenomena or events.
4. ANALYZE – Break the idea into parts and describe the relationship into parts.
5. SYNTHESIZE – Given the context to that idea, add more to make it understandable.
6. EVALUATE – Judge the worth of how, where, when the degree of the idea is essential or not.

How does our brain learn information?

EXAMPLE of Bloom’s TAXONOMY of COGNITIVE SKILLS:

Mary had a little lamb.

Whose fleece was white as snow.

And everywhere that Mary went,

The lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day.

Which was against the rules.

It made the children laugh and play

To see a lamb in school.

1. RECALL (the rhyme) - Say it in exactly the way it was given. "Mary had a little lamb."
2. RESTATE – Mary’s lamb had white fleece.
3. APPLY – Mary and school. RELATIONSHIP: She went to the school one day.

Lamb and children. RELATIONSHIP: It made the children laugh and play.

Laughter and rule. RELATIONSHIP: None.

School and fleece. RELATIONSHIP: None.

4. SYNTHESIZE – Was Mary a student in school? Don’t assume.

When you synthesize, you make up information that you feel is likely to be true.

PROBLEM: It could be wrong.

Mary can be defined differently.

Society determines everything. When society believes something, then the

majority of people will think the way society thinks.

It’s up to argumentation.

5. EVALUATE – To judge whether it is useful.

USES OF THE RHYME: It explains metacognition, it teaches morals, it puts kids to sleep.

We can respond in different ways towards certain things in the classical (scientific) way or the romantic (artistic) way. Art is a romantic type of discipline.

"Rats Recall"